Review of The Happytime Murders (2018) by Jack W — 05 Dec 2018

Yes, The Happytime Murders isn't the first raunchy puppet movie (Meet the Feebles) or even the first story to treat puppets as second-class citizens (the short-lived show Greg the Bunny). But it is hilarious, I laughed a lot.

The film has a lot creatively insane jokes. Yet, despite the craziness, the film does have a decent plot to it. Though, admittedly it does have a lot of detective/noir cliches to it.

The human cast is surprisingly good in this considering that they have to act with puppets most of the time. Melissa McCarthy, Elizabeth Banks, and Maya Rudolph all put in some of their better performances. In fact, I think this is the best I've seen Maya, who plays a goofy secretary. Credit should be given to veteran Muppet performer Bill Barretta (Pepe the Prawn) as the main character. He pulls off the unenviable job of making the main puppet character Phil come off as tough and gritty, albeit in a humorous way. Only downside to the acting in this is that the puppets' voices are performed by veteran puppeteers rather than cast outside voices and there are a couple of times where the puppeteers' voices weren't strong enough to fit the tone.

Lastly, I really have to admire the technical effort put into this. A lot of effort is made to populate this world with multiple puppets, even if they're just in the background. It really sells the idea of a world populated with them. I haven't seen a puppet film that has had this many full-torso shots.

If you don't like comedy that pushes the edge or is weird, this isn't for you. But I really recommend this if you like this sort of thing but aren't completely sold.